The present invention relates to a method and system for supervising manufacturing tools in a factory, and more specifically to software which provides a graphical user interface for monitoring operational status of the tools in the factory.
Semiconductor device manufacturing generally includes integrating of various on-wafer processes integrations such as isolation, well formation, gate insulator formation, source/drain formation, plug formation, low-k layer structure formation, wiring and passivation. Further, the respective process integrations comprise unit processes including cleaning, heat treatment, thin layer formation, impurity implantation, lithography and planarization. Accordingly, a number of manufacturing tools are necessary for semiconductor manufacturing.
In typical manufacturing facilities, a plurality of production lines engaged in the manufacture of a variety of different products are maintained, and the number of production lines is constantly increasing. Therefore, the number of manufacturing tools is constantly increasing. For example, a certain semiconductor factory is equipped with three hundred or more tools for the above described unit processes, and the number of subunits, included in the tools, for managing raw materials reaches nine hundred.
The production lines, as well as associated manufacturing tools, are monitored and supervised by distributed or centralized systems provided for the respective production lines.
However, from the aspect of facility and resource management in the entire factory, supervision across production lines of the manufacturing tools may be more desirable because there are tools used in common by several production lines and therefore a status change of a certain manufacturing tool for one line may affect other lines.
In providing a cross-production-line supervising system, a supervisor of the manufacturing tools would find it difficult to monitor the status of the tools, because typically the tools have different status reporting systems where reporting formats are different from each other depending on the types and manufacturers of the tools. As a result, it is difficult to comprehend the operating status of the tools in a factory and take appropriate action immediately.
Accordingly, it is desired to prepare a system for efficiently reporting the status of many tools so that a supervisor of the tools can comprehend the status instantly.